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Longitudinal Associations Between Marital Instability and Child Sleep Problems Across Infancy and Toddlerhood in Adoptive Families
Author(s) -
Mannering Anne M.,
Harold Gordon T.,
Leve Leslie D.,
Shelton Katherine H.,
Shaw Daniel S.,
Conger Rand D.,
Neiderhiser Jenae M.,
Scaramella Laura V.,
Reiss David
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01594.x
Subject(s) - psychology , longitudinal study , developmental psychology , instability , fragile families and child wellbeing study , sleep (system call) , early childhood , medicine , physics , mechanics , operating system , pathology , computer science
This study examined the longitudinal association between marital instability and child sleep problems at ages 9 and 18 months in 357 families with a genetically unrelated infant adopted at birth. This design eliminates shared genes as an explanation for similarities between parent and child. Structural equation modeling indicated that T1 marital instability predicted T2 child sleep problems, but T1 child sleep problems did not predict T2 marital instability. This result was replicated when models were estimated separately for mothers and fathers. Thus, even after controlling for stability in sleep problems and marital instability and eliminating shared genetic influences on associations using a longitudinal adoption design, marital instability prospectively predicts early childhood sleep patterns.